Archive for the ‘housekeeping’ Category
Everything AND the kitchen sink!
Monday, February 8th, 2010
If ever there ever was a post with a mish mash of stuff, this is it! The kitchen sink included!
Way back when we thought we were moving( you know, two weeks ago…) Mike put up a much needed back splash behind our stove and sink. He used left over tile from our bathroom when we renovated that. I thought that was a very smart and frugal move on his part. The tile is pretty and very neutral in color. I took some pictures so my mom could see how it came out. My mom knows how ugly my walls were behind the stove and sink so she’ll really appreciate how much better it looks. You’re welcome to appreciate Mike’s handiwork too.
As usual, I wish I had taken a “before” picture but didn’t think of doing that while Mike was working on this. This may not seem like a big deal but we threw away our ugly, moldy (yes! it was moldy on the bottom, unbeknown to us!) dish drainer and bought a smaller one. The old one used to be to the right of the sink, taking up a lot of that space and making it look cluttered and ugly. I also had a cookie cooling rack laying there too for an extra spot to air dry dishes. We cleaned that area out and I put a smaller, prettier, non-moldy dish drainer to the left of the sink. It looks much neater and nicer and creates extra counter space to the right of the sink. I also took my dish soap, hand soap and sponges out of an ugly, plastic Tupperware container and put them in a glass pie dish. ( I never make pies!) It’s amazing how you get accustomed to certain areas of clutter and don’t even notice them anymore. Then once you finally notice it and make a few simple changes it makes a world of difference!
This is the back splash behind the stove. The walls were hard to keep clean and because I’m a messy cook they were usually splattered with grease and oil etc. Before Mike put up the back splash I scrubbed the wall behind the stove and to the right. It looked much better just with the walls washed. The back splash actually seems to make the kitchen look bigger and “homey-er”
And one last little detail that my mom will appreciate….
I finally changed the kitchen valance. It had a green, satiny looking valance that wasn’t hideous but wasn’t super pretty either. It was dark green. I never changed the valance after we moved in and have been ignoring it for almost 6 1/2 years! I finally put a cheerier one up. The previous owners also painted over the beautiful dark wood work around the window and doorway. Maybe now that we have time, we can sand that paint off and re-stain it.
Now we move on to my health update:
My nurse practitioner called a couple of weeks ago and said they were having trouble with the machine that reads the results of the holter heart monitor. So, I have to wear it for 24 hrs again. They’ll call me…. (hmm..I should probably follow up on that since they haven’t called me yet.)
I’m still having the same dizziness as before but have kind of gotten used to it! I’ve been taking my vitamin D and prescription iron pills. Even if those don’t help my dizziness they’re still good for me.
*If you’re a man reading this you may want to stop reading here if you don’t want to read about women issues..*
My ultrasound results came back and I have a cyst on my right ovary. That’s all the nurse said when she called. She said that could create fertility problems but from what I understand those are pretty common. So, they want me to go through two monthly cycles and then come back in for another ultrasound to see if the cyst has gone away on it’s own.
Fun stuff, right? So, we’re on a new lead with that. Not sure what will come of it but I’ll keep everyone updated.
On a side note, Katelyn just had another UTI so she was on another round of antibiotics for it. The doctor thinks she’s not wiping correctly and that’s what is causing these infections.
Now, I’ll leave you with some cute pictures of Katelyn in her dance costume. She really wanted to wear it all the time when we first got it. I’ve put it away and she’ll forget about for a bit until her recital in May.
Who Wants A Clean House?
Thursday, November 19th, 2009
I’ve become addicted lately to the show “Clean House” on the Style network. The title of this post is their slogan. (As far as I can tell!) In case you don’t know what the show is about, a group of organizers and designers go into a family’s home (usually this family’s house is overtaken with their stuff and uber messy) get them to get rid of a ton of junk stuff (not without a fight from the homeowners), sell the junk stuff in a yard sale and use that money to organize and makeover some of the rooms in the house. The results are amazing. And seeing the way some of these people live makes me feel a whole heck of a lot better about my cluttered and messy home! The show has given me a lot of inspiration for some of the work and organizing I want to do in my home. I’m becoming more and more convinced of the need to get rid of stuff. I would like to sell it and get some money for it but if that doesn’t work I’ll just put it on freecycle. I have never had a yard sale and would be interested in having one at some point. With Christmas coming up I really want to get rid of stuff before new stuff comes in. We just repainted our living room and revamped it a bit. We’re not quite done with it but almost. The next room we’re moving on to is our bedroom.
I don’t know about you, but my bedroom is the dumping ground for laundry and sundry things that go upstairs. My room never looks clean,is way cluttered and is definitely not an oasis for me. Which, I think my bedroom should be. We’ve had the same bed spread for 8 years now, plain, off white curtains, the same off white paint on the walls that was there when we moved in and the room is just….blah. And messy. It’s not very big, our bedroom furniture is huge and we have a tiny closet. So, there’s a few things working against us. But I think with a little de-cluttering, some new paint and a new bed/comforter set things will look a lot more relaxing and peaceful in there.
After living in this house for 6 years I’m finally getting around to wanting to do some work on it. It seemed overwhelming a few months back and I just didn’t want to deal with any of it. Now I’m taking it one room at a time. And if it comes down to it, one wall at a time. I’ll be posting some before and after pictures of our bedroom. I’m embarrassed to even post the “before” pictures of our bedroom!
Here are the bed sets that I’m looking at and asking for for Christmas. They are all from Kohl’s and on sale! My room right now is in plum and off white tones. So I wanted to go with something different. My furniture is dark and I like the contrast of dark browns and other shades. I’m leaning towards dark brown/teal, dark brown/blue-ish and dark brown/lavender/lilac
#1
#2
#3
What do you think? I’m leaning towards #1 and #3 right now with #1 taking lead. I would most likely paint my walls one of the lighter shades that are on the bedspread.
Which one is your favorite?
Letting Go
Monday, August 31st, 2009
So I need to vent a bit and put forth a dilemma and see what any of you have to say about it. It’s really been frustrating and I’m really at a loss how to handle it and even if I should handle it at all. For the sake of “anonymity” I’m going to call the people involved in this story a “group” so nobody is set apart in my story.
There is a group of children that Katelyn absolutely seem to worship and loves to play with. This group of children ranges from 6- 10 years of age. Which, obviously, is several years older than Katelyn. For the most part, this group of kids are pretty well behaved and polite. Except that, they are generally mean to Katelyn. They will let her play with them for a little bit and then they will suddenly decide they don’t want her around. They are constantly including and then excluding her from whatever they are doing, bossing her around, not allowing her to do certain things and manipulating her. One of them goes as far as getting up and moving away every time Katelyn tries to sit next to them. When Katelyn doesn’t get the hint the first time and moves to sit next to this child again, they will get up and move somewhere else again. For no reason at all. Other than to be spiteful. Reducing Katelyn to either screaming at them or crying. It drives me absolutely insane. I would rather she not play with them at all for my sanity’s sake but she loves.them. I would rather she just play with other kids her own age just to stop the crying and fighting. Whenever she is pretend playing she pretends that group is with her. Whenever she plans her parties she wants that group invited.
Now, before you think I am overreacting or defending my bratty child or something, I’ll say this. I know Katelyn is no angel. I know(and remember!) that when you’re an older child, playing with a younger one is something you don’t always want to do. You want the little brat to go away and play with kids his/her own age. I get that. I also get that kids are kids and aren’t perfect either. I also understand that if a child doesn’t want to sit next to another one they don’t have to. Especially if the child is obnoxious and annoying. Katelyn is not like that! She just likes to sit next to this child because she loves them! The more she seems to get upset and frustrated by them not wanting to sit by her the more they continue to do it! And what gets me even more is that this child’s parent sees this and does nothing!!
So…here’s my dilemma- What do I do? I can’t “come to her rescue” every time they exclude her. I’m not their mother and they aren’t required to play with her. Time and time again, Mike and I have told her when they start being mean to just go play somewhere else! But in the heat of the moment that is the last thing she wants to do. She wants them to let her do what they are doing. Sometimes the exclusion or the manipulation is over the petties, tiniest things.
Here are some examples:
Katelyn usually comes crying to us and says ” Mooom, they’re playing pirates and I want to be a princess pirate but they said I can’t because they don’t need another princess pirate. They said I have to be a dog instead. Waaahhh”.
This is just an example but it’s the kind of thing that happens all the time. So, off I go to check it out.
Me: What’s going on guys?
Them: We’re playing pirates and Katelyn wants to be a princess pirate but we don’t need anymore princess pirates. We want her to be the dog.
Me: She doesn’t want to be a dog,ok? I think there’s plenty of room for one more princess pirate. Let’s play nicely and let everyone be what they want.
Them: But…..
Me: She. Can. Be.A.Princess.Pirate.If.She.Wants.
Parent of one of the children: Is everything ok in here?
And one of the children tells that parent the whole story and they reiterate that Katelyn is young and doesn’t understand they need to let her be a princess pirate. So, the group of children scowls and pouts and decide they want to play something else.
Half the time I don’t even know what to say because their play is so involved that I don’t even know if Katelyn knows what she’s talking about! All I know is they are excluding her somehow or just trying to be mean. And these are truly good, well raised children! Except for this one issue..
OR
Katelyn(crying): Mooom!! They’re playing magic carpet on the blanket but they won’t let me sit on the magic carpet too.
OR
Katelyn: They’re playing cave in that room but they pushed me out and shut the door and won’t let me back in. Waaaahh!
And off Mike or I go to try to settle the problem. It’s getting tiring. And infuriating.
My question is: What do I do? Do I let Katelyn get crushed every time, let it go and just tell her to play elsewhere? (And sometimes there isn’t anyone else to play with! Madelyn would be the only one and we all know happy Madelyn is by herself. Katelyn on the other hand, hates playing by herself). Do I step in every time and make the kids let her play only to have them pout and decide they want to play something else somewhere else? And you all know how I feel about correcting other people’s children. Katelyn actually asked me last week why they don’t like to play with her. I didn’t know what to answer!
” I’m sorry, honey. They’re just mean and spiteful children. You shouldn’t want to play with them anyway”. That’s what I wanted to say. But I didn’t. I just said ” I don’t know. You are a lot younger than them and sometimes they just want to play with kids they’re own age.Sometimes kids just don’t want to play with other kids”.
So, since my blood pressure has gone up just writing this I wanted to show you guys what our new rearrangement looks like. We are very happy with it and I think it uses our living room/dining room/ sun room space more efficiently.
You can see in the back ground the sun room before which was used as an office/play room. Sorry, this was the only shot I had of it that you could see most if it in.
Here’s the after. Our new dining room!
That shelf is getting neatened up and cleaned off a bit. Our dining room table is not longer in a high traffic area so it doesn’t get a ton of stuff dumped on it. It had gotten so bad that I got discouraged from trying to actually eat at our table. So we ate on the couch a lot!
Our old dining room has been turned into a playroom. If you’ve been reading my blog for anything length of time you know what it looked like.
The before(Christmas 08 in case you were wondering)
The after
This room is getting organized a bit more, but, yes, this is probably going to be what it looks like most of the time! And you know what? I don’t care! It’s their playroom. As long as all of that isn’t in the living room anymore I couldn’t care less what that room looks like! The girls are also thrilled with having their own t.v. No more fights over the t.v! (Between Mike and the girls. Not me, of course.)
And lastly, the new train table Madelyn got from daddy as a birthday gift. This was taken the morning after Mike set it all up. He wanted to surprise them with it when they woke up. It no longer looks like this anymore.
Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? All are welcome. On any of the above.
